Big Little Lies Trivia
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49 free Big Little Lies trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Big Little Lies began as a 2014 Liane Moriarty novel set on Sydney's Northern Beaches and ended up as HBO's most decorated limited series of 2017, relocated to the fog and cliffs of Monterey. This quiz covers both: the book's Pirriwee Public trivia night and Davitt Award, and the show's cast of Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, Zoë Kravitz and Alexander Skarsgård. The production story gets its own questions too: how Kidman and Witherspoon optioned the book within a month, Jean-Marc Vallée's handheld style, the Emmy haul, the late renewal that angered rival producers, Andrea Arnold's season two and Meryl Streep's character named after the actress herself. Season three's 2025 confirmation is here as well. Every answer is sourced from Wikipedia articles on the series, the novel and the people involved. Play in sets of ten, then try the other HBO quizzes.
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Q 01Big Little Lies is based on a 2014 novel by which Australian author?
Liane Moriarty
Liane Moriarty built one plot thread on a friend's story of bite marks at kindergarten: after all the alarm, the biting turned out to be self-inflicted.
Q 02Who created and wrote the HBO series Big Little Lies?
David E. Kelley
David E. Kelley was a Boston lawyer until producer Steven Bochco hired him as a television writer, and he scripted every episode of Big Little Lies himself.
Q 03In which California town is Big Little Lies set?
Monterey
Monterey replaced the Australian beach town of the novel when the story was adapted for American television.
Q 04Who plays Ed, Madeline's husband, in Big Little Lies?
Adam Scott
Adam Scott plays Ed, who practises his Elvis karaoke at home and is mid-song at the school fundraiser when his guilt-stricken wife runs out.
Q 05Which Canadian filmmaker directed every episode of Big Little Lies' first season?
Jean-Marc Vallée
Jean-Marc Vallée shot all seven episodes handheld in natural light, with no marks on the floor, so the actors were free to move wherever a scene took them.
Q 06Which English director took over Big Little Lies for season two?
Andrea Arnold
Andrea Arnold directed all seven episodes, after which the first season's director was brought back to rework her cuts, a step HBO called normal for television.
Q 07Which character does Reese Witherspoon play in Big Little Lies?
Madeline Mackenzie
Madeline Mackenzie hides an affair with a theatre director; when her husband finds out in season two the marriage nearly ends, but the pair renew their vows.
Q 08Which character does Nicole Kidman play in Big Little Lies?
Celeste Wright
Celeste Wright is a retired lawyer who rediscovers her love of the work when she argues a case before the mayor, against her controlling husband's wishes.
Q 09In Big Little Lies, Shailene Woodley plays which single mother who is new in town?
Jane Chapman
Jane Chapman is the young newcomer who takes target practice at a shooting range while she hunts for the man who assaulted her.
Q 10In Big Little Lies, Laura Dern's character Renata Klein is married to whom?
Gordon
Gordon is arrested in season two, and the fallout leaves the Kleins bankrupt with their belongings repossessed.
Q 11In Big Little Lies, Zoë Kravitz plays Bonnie Carlson, the wife of which character?
Nathan
Nathan is Madeline's ex-husband, and their teenage daughter moves in with him and his new wife in season one, to her mother's dismay.
Q 12Who plays Perry Wright in Big Little Lies?
Alexander Skarsgård
Alexander Skarsgård’s Perry looks like the perfect husband, but he is violent with his wife in private and is unmasked in the finale as the stranger who once assaulted another of the mothers.
Q 13Which screen legend joined Big Little Lies in season two as Perry's mother?
Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep's legal name is Mary Louise: the author wrote the part with her in mind and named it for her, and Streep signed on without reading a script.
Q 21In season two of Big Little Lies, what does Mary Louise go to court to win?
Custody of her grandsons
Custody of her grandsons is what Mary Louise sues for, but she loses after a video one of the boys filmed of his father's violence is shown in court.
Q 22What does Bonnie Carlson do for a living in Big Little Lies?
Yoga instructor
Yoga instructor Bonnie is the younger second wife whom her husband's ex cannot bear to keep running into, a grievance carried over from the novel.
Q 23What is the title of Big Little Lies' first episode?
Somebody's Dead
Somebody's Dead opens with police at a school fundraiser where a parent has been killed, then hides both the victim and the killer until the finale.
Q 14Which Broadway musical does the community theatre fight City Hall to stage in Big Little Lies?
Avenue Q
Avenue Q, a comedy performed with puppets, splits the town until the mayor is talked into letting the production go ahead.
Q 15Big Little Lies' Ziggy, Iain Armitage, went on to lead which sitcom?
Young Sheldon
Young Sheldon cast Iain Armitage in 2017, but he was first noticed as a small boy posting theatre reviews on YouTube, which is how agents found him.
Q 16Which character does Kathryn Newton play in Big Little Lies?
Abigail Carlson
Abigail Carlson is the teenager whose secret project is a plan to auction her virginity online in the name of a cause, to her parents’ horror.
Q 17What is the name of the school at the center of the HBO series Big Little Lies?
Otter Bay Elementary
Otter Bay Elementary exists only on screen: in the novel the parents feud at Pirriwee Public, which the author called 'a little bit of a dream school'.
Q 18Who pushes Perry down the stairs at the end of Big Little Lies' first season?
Bonnie
Bonnie shoves Perry as he attacks his wife and he falls to his death; the women tell the police he slipped, the lie that hangs over season two.
Q 19In Big Little Lies, what is Amanda Reisman, played by Robin Weigert, to Celeste and Perry?
Their therapist
Their therapist sees through the couple’s story, tells the wife she is being abused and urges her to plan a way out before the next attack.
Q 20In season two of Big Little Lies, Jane takes a new job at what kind of attraction?
An aquarium
An aquarium is Jane's new workplace, where her co-worker Corey asks her out and she slowly lets herself trust someone again.
Q 24Parents at Big Little Lies' fatal fundraiser dress as Elvis or which film star?
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn came from life: a writer friend of the author spent a book tour hunting for the right pearls to wear as Audrey to a school costume event.
Q 25In what format did its two stars first plan to make Big Little Lies?
A feature film
A feature film was the plan when the two stars optioned the book in August 2014; three months later they had recast it as a television project.
Q 26Which co-star lost an Emmy to Nicole Kidman?
Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon was nominated in the same category for the same show, but she still left with an Emmy that night as one of its producers.
Q 27Which top Emmy did Big Little Lies win for its first season?
Outstanding Limited Series
Outstanding Limited Series fitted when it won, but HBO then ordered a second season, and the Producers Guild moved the show to drama and restarted its voting.
Q 28In Big Little Lies, what does Celeste swing at Perry in self-defence, sending him to hospital?
A tennis racket
A tennis racket is what she grabs when he seizes her; back from the hospital he tells her she is lucky he did not kill her, and she starts looking for a flat.
Q 29In Big Little Lies, which show does Madeline take children to on the day of Amabella's birthday party?
Disney on Ice
Disney on Ice was payback for Ziggy being left off the guest list: she got free tickets for the same day, and several invited children skipped the party.
Q 30Whose song Cold Little Heart plays over the opening credits of Big Little Lies?
Michael Kiwanuka
Michael Kiwanuka's theme is really a ten-minute album opener that builds for minutes before he sings a word; the credits use only a short slice of it.